■ An analysis found Black Americans are falling behind in receiving COVID-19 shots.

Analysis: Black Americans fall behind in getting COVID shots

A racial gap has opened up in the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination drive, with Black Americans in many places lagging behind whites in receiving shots, an Associated Press analysis shows.

An early look at the 17 states and two cities that have released racial breakdowns through Monday found that Black people in all places are getting inoculated at levels below their share of the general population.

That is true though they constitute an oversize percentage of the nation’s health care workers, who were put at the front of the line for shots when the campaign began in mid-December.

In North Carolina, Black people make up 22 percent of the population and 26 percent of the health care workforce but only 11 percent of the vaccine recipients. White people, a category in which the state includes both Hispanic and non-Hispanic whites, are 68 percent of the population and 82 percent of those vaccinated.

The gap is troubling to some, given that the coronavirus has taken a disproportionate toll in severe sickness and death on Black people in the U.S., where the scourge has killed over 430,000 Americans. Black, Hispanic and Native American people are dying from COVID-19 at almost three times the rate of white people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts say several factors could be driving the disparity, including distrust of the medical establishment among Black Americans because of a history of discriminatory treatment; inadequate access to the vaccine in Black neighborhoods; and a digital divide that can make it difficult to get crucial information. Vaccination sign-ups are being done to a large degree online.

In other developments:

■ The Los Angeles Times reported that one of the largest vaccination sites in the nation temporarily shut down Saturday because dozen of protesters blocked the entrance, stalling hundreds of motorists who had been waiting in line for hours.

Officials said the Los Angeles Fire Department shut the entrance to the vaccination center at Dodger Stadium about 2 p.m. as a precaution.

Some protesters carried signs decrying the COVID-19 vaccine and shouting for people not to get the shots. There were no incidents of violence.

■ Baltimore public health officials are canceling some COVID-19 vaccination appointments scheduled for next week after overbooking hundreds of first-dose appointments.

The city health department did not specify how many appointments would be canceled, or why the overbooking happened, The Baltimore Sun reported.

The department issued a statement saying it was working to identify potential issues in the state’s scheduling system, and the possibility that links to second-dose appointments were shared via email or social media.

■ Arizona reported 5,119 coronavirus cases and 76 confirmed deaths on Saturday.

The Department of Health Services says the state’s pandemic totals increased to 753,379 cases and 13,098 confirmed deaths.

Cases, hospitalizations and deaths are slowing in Arizona.